The demand and need for persons to be able to detect different substances on a real-time basis has increased with increased frequency of drug use and abuse. In some embodiments, a need may arise to determine if a drug has been added to a beverage without the consumer's knowledge, and to make this determination discretely.
For example, an increased misuse of various psychotropic and/or sedating drugs for recreational or criminal purposes has become more problematic in the present culture. A particularly troubling form of misuse is the surreptitious introduction of these drugs into ordinary beverages for the purpose of rendering the consumer of the beverage disoriented or unconscious. The unknowingly sedated individual may then be taken advantage of, e.g., become the victim of robbery or sexual assault. Drug-facilitated sexual assault has become increasingly common, particularly among younger members of the population, to the degree that most universities have warning and prevention programs and policies in place to prevent drug-facilitated sexual assault. Conventional apparatus to detect such drugs prior to ingestion often are insufficient as they may be too cumbersome to use, take too long to detect the targeted substance, detect only a limited substance, and lack selectivity and sensitivity to many other compounds.
As another example, an increased frequency of diagnoses of auto-immune disorders or highly sensitive allergies has occurred in the general population. For example, Celiac's disease, peanut allergies, lactose allergies or other conditions triggered by different ingested substances have become more common in the general population. If the particular harmful substance is ingested by persons having these types of conditions, significant and severe consequences for the person may result.
In view of these trends, conventional testing methods and devices often are too cumbersome or take too long to evaluate a particular liquid for a targeted substance. In some embodiments, no specific miniaturized apparatus for real-time detection of certain targeted substances or compounds exist. In some embodiments, beverage components may interfere with testing methods.